Most of our Electrical Engineering graduates cannot…

"Man, this is so exciting" Eve said as the four of us were entering the
hall in which the beginning ceremony of the new Stanford
scholastic year for Computer Science students took place.

"I mean", she continued, "come on, this is Stanford. Tons of great
names, lots of other departments, lots of interesting classes we could
take, many extra-curricular activities."

"And we're in the middle of Silicon Valley - we can attend
conferences of all these companies, big and small; we can visit
IBM or Google…"

"And we're studying Comp. Eng.. One day we'll be more than
just creators of bit buckets, but people who can actually wire
transistors and stuff like that."

"Of course, once we start having homework and we're going to
have bad teachers, we'll curse this place to death, and continually
bitch about it, but right now - I'm so excited."

"And the best thing about it", she said as she started kissing Taylor,
"is that I'm doing it with my best friends."

"I hope I'm more than just your friend." Taylor said. "Oh you are" she
replied and they started seriously making out.

"I could not help overhearing what you were saying", said a man in his
fifties or sixties who approached Jonathan and me. "For your
information, most of our Electrical Engineering Graduates, cannot
even replace a light bulb."

"Hmmm… makes sense.", Jonathan said.

"Yes, they are practically specialised mathematicians."

"What's up with them?" He asked, pointing at Taylor and Eve.

"Well," I said, "it's a combination of raging hormones and what we
really hope is a match made in heaven."

"Ah, OK. Just understand that meeting you is sort of like meeting
God."

"I'm not God. " he said, "Hell, last time I tried, it took me
two days to build the Roman Empire." Some people laughed or
giggled. "Here, ", he continued. "I made something for you." and
he gave her a check.

"2.56 dollars," she turned the check, "To my great adm." she said,
"Wow! One Knuthian Hexadecimal Dollar just for me."

"Are you going to cash it in?" Jonathan asked whimsically.

"Are you kidding? This stuff sells on eBay for at least a hundred
bucks…"

I burst into laughter.

"I'm just kidding", Eve said, "I'm going to cherish it.".

I admit that I did not entirely understand everything that
happened right away. But when I returned to my dorm room, I
spent some time browsing the web looking for answers. I still
have a lot to learn, but I'm getting there. I guess I'm just a
geek who's trying to make the world a better place.